No, you’re not famous; you’re infamous. You’re situated squarely at the bottom of an already too-deep and increasingly murky barrel of celebrity culture, celebrity journalism, and (un)reality TV, the depths of which are probably making even Andy Warhol cringe in his grave. I want this to be your fifteenth minute. I want your egg timer to ding now, so you can exit our national discourse as swiftly, completely and permanently as possible.

And, you know what? We can do something about it. We can let the producers of whatever crap program agrees to pay these creepy, pathetic, attention-starved goons for the rights to interview That Couple that not only will we tune out that specific broadcast, but we will tune out that program in the future as well. We can compound the effect by identifying the companies that sponsor the airing of the interview, and boycotting their products or services.

Why? Because there are literally millions of Americans who bust their asses through school and job training, who serve our country in the military in harm’s way, or merely plumb our toilets at home or change our baskets at the office—who, in short, work hard, raise their families and pay their taxes--and do all of that with zero expectation that they should win some version of the public celebrity lottery that suddenly showers them with a degree of fame and fortune that That Couple not merely aspires to, but clearly believe they deserve.

FiveThirtyEight's Tom Schaller eloquently transcribes the voices in my head.

As Kottke notes, Just Don't Look. Could be said of a lot of things bouncing across the headlines these days.

As Chris says, here is the luckiest idiot in the world.

As usual, Stewart nails it. I suppose Michael Moore is correct in saying the Dems have no balls.

In a column published yesterday, Newsmax's John L. Perry wrote that there is a "gaining" possibility that the military will stage a coup to "resolve the 'Obama problem.'"

Newsmax has apparently removed the column from its site. Links are now redirected to the homepage, and Perry's author page has no mention of his latest work. You can read the full text here.

The coup -- which would be "civilized" and "bloodless," according to Perry -- would consist of a "patriotic general" sitting down with the President and working out a new system in which "skilled, military-trained, nation-builders" would "do the serious business of governing and defending the nation" while Obama would still be allowed to make speeches.

A few things:

1. John L. Perry is an insane, scared white man, terrified of change and clinging desperately to John Cougar Mellencamp's America.

2. If a black columnist suggested we stage a military coup to remove George W. Bush from office, the only thing we'd be hearing is the racism card being piledriven into our skulls.

3. Newsmax, the dubious site on which Perry's lunatic rant was published, broke from its bourbon-induced haze and pulled the column. Thankfully, the Internet tends to have a memory, so you can find the full text, in all it's pants-on-head retarded glory, over at TPM.

Matt Latimer, former speech writer for President George W Bush, said that some members of his administration believed her books promoted sorcery.

As a result, she was never presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The claims appear in Latimer's new book called Speechless: Tales of a White House Survivor.

He wrote that "narrow thinking" led White House officials to object to giving Rowling the civilian honour.

As I said on Twitter, this is GOP, manifest destiny, entitled nation, divine favorite, narrow-minded thinking. Or bullshit, as it's commonly known.

The highest land in the office, and people are still making decisions based on insecure mythology and superstition. What does the Bible promote? Water into wine, oceans parting, talking burning bushes. By every measure, the Bible promotes sorcery just as much as Rowling's books. Perhaps more.

As a guy who has voted Republican in every election except this last one, it's "values" like this that will ensure I never return to the party until it decides to lose the religious shroud and get back to some level of rationalism.

You make me so proud.

Easily the stupidest product for the iPhone that I've ever seen.

(Thx to @motersho for the tip)

I’m not sure whether our political moment really is more polarized than it has been in the past. But boy, does it feel corrosive. Mothers are crying at the prospect of the President might speak to their children. People are sniffing everywhere for hints of racism.

I’ve been wondering quite a bit recently how democratic dialogue is supposed to occur in a situation like this. We can’t talk to each other. How on earth are we supposed to handle self-governance?

Exactly. The far right and left extremes are making this climate a powderkeg just looking for a reason to go off.

However -- Glenn Beck is still a friggin' idiot and his advertisers leaving him is the best thing I've read in the past month. Schadenfreude? Whatever. Karma, if you ask me.

I couldn't write this stuff if I tried.